25 YEARS
OF EXPERIENCE
History
Howsafe is a dynamic specialist Work Health & Safety and training business founded in 1994 by our Managing Director and Principal Consultant, Mark Howe. Since then, we’ve grown tremendously, but not so much that we’ve lost touch with the reality of what life is like on the front lines of business.
900 BUSINESSES
WE HAVE HELPED
NATIONWIDE
We’re based in the beautiful Hunter Valley in New South Wales, but we have clients in almost every state in Australia. Our clients range from small retailers to nation-wide businesses and from two-man lawn maintenance teams to multi-national mining companies.
48000 HOURS
DEDICATED TO HELPING YOU
MISSIONS
We can help any business – no matter how large or small – address their work health and safety needs, concerns and legislative compliance obligations.
MARK HOWE
CEO / FOUNDER
Mark is the founder of Workplace Safety & Training Services Pty Ltd and Howsafe. With a career spanning nearly three decades in safety, training and related fields, he is a veritable fountain of knowledge on WHS issues and their management. Having worked in fields as diverse as radiography and coal mine management, Mark has a deep understanding of what it takes to run a business; he also has an abiding passion for people and their safety in the workplace.
CLAIRE BURKE
OPERATIONS MANAGER
Claire has a dual role as our Operations Manager and Senior Safety Consultant; she holds all the myriad facets of the business together with grace, calm and skill, which is no mean feat given how busy we always are. Claire shares her father Mark’s uncanny ability to remember vast amounts of information and retrieve it at will; fortunately for her, she doesn’t look very much like him at all.
Dean Hoppe
Safety Consultant
Dean is man of many talents. He’s responsible for providing on-site WHS consultancy support to a lot of our clients, managing our contractor management system, acting as a Return To Work co-ordinator, performing Drug & Alcohol Testing for our clients and developing Emergency Evacuation Plans. It’s a full workload but he handles it with a friendly smile and a great attitude.
Chris Silkman
Safety Consultant
Chris is the newest addition to our consulting team. From developing procedures to conducting site inspections, Chris has proven to be a valuable part of our team. Helping a number of clients wrangle safety legislation and apply it practically is his forte.
Ron Van Egmond
Systems Manager
Our resident jack-of-all-trades, Ron has studied and worked in safety, IT, quality auditing, law, photography, graphic design, communications, writing, electronics and a multitude of other disciplines. He’s found his niche at Howsafe, where his role reflects that experience – if it’s complicated, we throw him at it.
Michael Nanscawen
Chief Programmer
Michael heads up our illustrious programming team. A gifted IT specialist with a lifetime’s experience in programming and computing, he has an innate ability to grasp complex problems and turn them into even more complex answers. He’s quick-witted, intelligent and impossible to faze, all of which means he’s the perfect person to have on our team.
Patrick Carter
Programmer
Another member of our in-house programming team, Pat specialises in assessing our clients’ needs and working out solutions. His ability to think outside the box is what sets him apart, to say nothing of his sartorial splendour.
Geoff Hoy
Programmer
Geoff is the third member of our programming team. His expertise in data structures, complex databases and information management means he knows where the bits and bytes go, and how to get them back when we need them. He’s a quiet achiever, but his achievements speak volumes.
Naomi Cheetham
Admin Coordinator
Naomi rounds out the Admin team at Howsafe, the engine room that keeps the place running smoothly. Always unflappable when the pressure is on, we’d be lost without her energy and her quick wit.
Baylee Hollingshed
WHS Consultant
Baylee is a bit of a powerhouse, juggling her roles as a WHS Consultant and Chain of Responsibility specialist along with helping with general admin work in the office. She’s a smiling ray of sunshine with a can-do attitude, and we’re lucky to have her.
PaUL ARCHER
Development TEAM LEADER
Paul steers our Development team, constantly analysing what it is we do and how we can do it better in the future. Blessed with a wealth of knowledge about business in general, and IT specifically, he’s helping us navigate the direction of Howsafe into an exciting future.
James Morris
WHS Consultant
The newest member of our ever-expanding team of WHS consultants, James is hard-working, diligent and our resident perfectionist. He can find a double-space in a ten-page document at a single glance, and may well be he only living person on the planet who can truthfully state he’s mastered Microsoft Word.
BOB
Morale Manager
Bob is in charge of putting a smile on our faces every day, as well as ensuring any leftovers from lunch disappear in a flash. If you drop into our office, be sure to give him a pat and scratch behind his ear. He loves that.